Advances in camera technology, image processing and image storage technology have enabled humans to seamlessly interact with and “capture” their surroundings through digital photography. Moreover, recent advances in technology surrounding hand-held devices (e.g., mobile phones and digital assistant systems) have improved image capture and image storage capabilities on hand-held devices. This has led to a substantial increase in the use of hand-held devices for photo acquisition and digital photo storage.
The growing volume of digital photographs acquired and stored on electronic devices has created a need for systematic cataloging and efficient organization of the photographs in order to enable ease of viewing and searching. Tagging of photographs, for example, by associating with the photograph names of people or places, facilitates the ease of organizing and searching for photographs. Other information, such as time, date, and GPS coordinate data, are also increasingly associated with photographs, allowing efficient sorting and organization.
While photo capture and digital image storage technology has improved substantially over the past decade, traditional approaches to photo searching can be non-intuitive, arduous, and time-consuming.